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A fire at a next-door restaurant has put Sal's Pizza out of commission for the first time in three decades. The restaurant hopes to reopen for delivery orders by next week. (Published Wednesday, Jan 2, 2013)

Updated at 12:32 AM CDT on Thursday, Jan 3, 2013

A Dallas pizza institution has been closed since Sunday after a fire broke out at a restaurant next door.

Sal's Pizza in a popular strip center near Wycliff Avenue and the Dallas North Tollway has been closed since Sunday after a fire broke out in the kitchen of Oishii, the sushi restaurant next door.

About 40 firefighters managed to keep the blaze contained to the two restaurants.

"It's devastating," Sal's manager Amy Jakova said. "Our employees are out of work. We have no business coming in."

The "we're closed" sign is not one customers are used to seeing on the doors of Sal's Pizza.

"We don't close," Jakova said. "We close three days out of the whole year -- Fourth of July, Christmas and Thanksgiving."

Her father, Sal, opened the restaurant 30 years ago. It still uses much of the same equipment to serve up its New York-style pizza.

"Our dough machine is over 30 years old; I call her old faithful," Amy Jakova said. They don't make them like her anymore."

Investigators still haven't said what caused the fire.

But customers of both restaurants are anxious for them to get back up and running.

"Our phones -- as you can hear; they are still going off -- we have a voice mail, and it's full every five minutes," Jakova said. "I have to check them and call people back and say, 'I'm sorry; I can't deliver today.'"

Sal's hopes to reopen its kitchen for delivery orders by next week.

But it could be months before Oishii reopens.

"It's sad. I know they need the money," said longtime Oishii customer David Schneider. "I don't know what they're going to do; it's going to be a long time."